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Flying Pens

Story by Pam Bolton (Read author interview) June 26, 2009

art by Robinson Accola

Flying pens cross over the caution line, go right through stop signs without a moment’s hesitation, jump through intersections and pull a horde of other moments with them. Moments of fungadillis made by Margaret, and still hot from the deep fryer in her and Henry’s apartment over the 2 bay garage. Moments of discovering box turtles escaped from the swamp all the way on top of the hill. They sit there under the swing set. Flying pens pick up moments of practicing at Margaret’s piano. Of studying Henry’s bulbous nose on the half hour ride home from school. Moments of standing still in the living room as a cigarette is silently slipped from the step-mother’s box of Malboros, palmed until safe in the woods. Moments of walking home the last 1/2 mile, lagging behind sister Daria, let her scare the snakes. Of forgetting the three sisters still have a mother, she just isn’t here with them in this big colonial home, bought by their father for his second wife. Moments of listening to how the house speaks, in creaks and groans, calling pens out of the living room table drawer to fly across paper and walls. Pens out of sticks, out of the shit in a baby’s diaper she smeared on the wall.

About the Author

Pam Bolton started out a tree climbing kid in the sticks of Massachusetts. She’s still got a thing for trees, and for animals. After over thirty years on the west coast, where she picked up a BA in Art and an MA in Transformative Arts, Pam has started to submit some of her writing and is actually beginning to have work published. A Process Coach, she spends a lot of her time with clients, learning more and more about how to change the stories we’ve told ourselves and have more of the life we’ve always wanted.

About the Artist

Robinson Accola creates artwork for SmokeLong Quarterly as needed.

This story appeared in Issue Twenty-Five of SmokeLong Quarterly.
SmokeLong Quarterly Issue Twenty-Five
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